Bertha Lewis, former ACORN CEO, is back with The Black Institute and the G Project

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I told them they had to organize. I asked the eight to meet the next week and each to bring another with the same problem. The next week I come back and there were 64 people in the room. By the third meeting, there were 250. So we launched a campaign and did a report. It’s was The Black Institute’s first ever report called, “Broken Promises.” We discovered that this was a problem throughout the country and that is where we built the basis of our black immigration campaign. But the following year, with the aging out problem, the children came and said, “People talk about the DREAM Act, but it doesn’t include us.” And so I began to organize their children. At that time, there were at least 800 that did not have their Green Cards. Now it’s down to 25.

How is that legislation like the DREAM Act, which much of the conversation around reform has centered on, impacts black immigrants differently?

First of all, there’s an age limit in the DREAM Act. You have to be here prior to age 16. Many black immigrants, especially Caribbean folks, finish their secondary education and then come here. It also really focused totally on the undocumented. The children of the women we helped came here documented. There was just no recourse for those that became undocumented after aging out due to the broken system. And there are many other issues for African, Caribbean and Afro-Latino children but these things never see the light of day because of the typical narrative around immigration.

Aside from organizing and the research, how else is The Black Institute focusing on the issue?

We put together a database: intellectuals, scientists, politicians, artists and entertainers who have an immigration story in their background and we’re sharing that. It’s one way of raising awareness and getting people interested. We also took 1,000 black immigrants to DC this past March. It had never been done before. We invited members of the Congressional Black Caucus and found out a bunch of them were in the immigration closet.

Finally, what is you message to black Americans about why they should really be engaged in the conversation around immigrations reform?

The frame so far has been around Latinos. That makes sense by sheer numbers but there’s another frame of black folks from South America, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and everywhere else. As the country becomes more diverse, it seems no one is examining the diversity of African-Americans. We’re all put into this lump. The Black Institute wants to highlight the diversity of black folks and look at immigration, not just as a way of supporting Latinos, but because many black folks in this country are also first, second, third and fourth generation immigrants themselves. That’s what this is all about, advancing the issue and highlighting how it really is our issue too.

Follow Donovan X. Ramsey at @iDXR